What makes us different?

InterVol provides ethical international volunteering opportunities for volunteers in the United Kingdom through long-term partnerships with grass-roots organisations in developing countries.

We have quite a few things that make us different to the majority of other organisations offering international volunteering opportunities:

1. Our student-led groups at UK universities work directly with partner charities in developing countries to work out what activities require both the time investment of volunteers and financial investment to create positive change in communities, children’s centres and schools. We focus on programmes that build capacity of our partners, improve education, improve health and conserve the environment.

2. We train our volunteers in the United Kingdom and select volunteers based on their skills and experience to allow them to thrive on an overseas project and be valuable assets to our partner organisations. This means that volunteers are prepared and appropriately-skilled to work on their projects and can make the most of the learning experience. We do not provide volunteers work as skilled labourers; our volunteers assist and support NGO and school staff.

3. Our trustees and committees annually evaluate projects based on feedback from both partners and volunteers annually and only run projects if there is a clear need for volunteers and a specific project goal.

4. We are a registered charity in the United Kingdom and are run entirely by volunteers. This means that every penny raised by our volunteers goes to our overseas projects. Volunteers cover their own travel, accommodation and insurance costs so all donations are earmarked for direct project contributions.

5. We partner with organisations on a long-term basis, allowing long-term planning and sustainable development. Our longest partnerships have now been running for over 15 years while our ongoing support to former partners in Ecuador (Santa Lucia Reserve, 6 years) and South Africa (Horizon Farm Trust, 8 years) allowed them to strengthen their work, invest in infrastructure, and become more self-sufficient.

Photo: An InterVol Nottingham water tank in place in Eastern Uganda, allowing clean water to be collected in the community.